Microsoft’s Family Safety app is blocking Chrome on Windows PCs
If your PC won’t open Google Chrome, there may be a culprit: Microsoft.
Google determined that Microsoft’s Family Safety app is blocking Chrome, though the company hasn’t discovered how or why. “For some users, Chrome is unable to run when Microsoft Family Safety is enabled,” Google support engineers posted on the company’s support blog. The issues have apparently been occurring for weeks.
The glitch (?) was reported on by The Verge, who also reported that the problem can be resolved by temporarily renaming the Chrome executable to something else. (There’s nothing wrong with using the Google Chrome browser, of course.)
Google also published the following workaround:
- Go to https://familysafety.microsoft.com or open the Family Safety mobile app.
- Select the child.
- To allow other browsers, Disable “Filter inappropriate websites” under the Edge tab, or Go to Windows tab → Apps & Games → unblock Chrome”
Microsoft’s Family Safety allows a parent to manage screen time and apps used by their kids, and can either be accessed via the web or a dedicated app. Let’s hope that it’s just being a little aggressive, and Microsoft fixes it soon.
Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld
Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers’ News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.
